OVERVIEW OF THE CANADIAN STUDY ON THE DETERMINANTS OF ETHNOCULTURALLYSPECIFIC BEHAVIORS RELATED TO HIV AIDS/

Canada's population is composed of heterogeneous ethnocultural communi ties. There is a need for information and educational initiatives on H IV and AIDS directed specifically at these communities. For such inter ventions to be effective we must determine the existing personal and s ociocultural factors related to HIV transmission. There has been littl e such research in Canada. In this supplement we report on various asp ects of a study conducted between May 1992 and December 1994 to determ ine the factors related to HIV transmission in several echnocultural c ommunities. This paper describes some innovative aspects of the projec t: the conceptual framework, the community participatory model, the us e of a multi-method research design, and the ongoing communication str ategy. The combination of these elements makes the study unique. The v alue of the study lies nor only in the information obtained bur also i n the model it provides for future research in other settings.